EXCERPT

An enthusiastic group of non-experts, working through an online interface and receiving feedback from lab experiments, has produced designs for RNA molecules that are consistently more successful than those generated by the best computerized design algorithms, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University report.

Moreover, the researchers gathered some of the best design rules and practices generated by players of the online EteRNA (http://eterna.cmu.edu/web/) design challenge and, using machine learning principles, generated their own automated design algorithm, EteRNABot, which also bested prior design algorithms. Though this improved computer design tool is faster than humans, the designs it generates still don't match the quality of those of the online community, which now has more than 130,000 members.

VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJhHg89h7bo (from 2011)

SOURCE

http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2014/january/jan27_RNAdesigns.html